The present invention relates to a high bandwidth vapor density diagnostic system for use in an atomic vapor laser isotope separation (AVLIS) process.
In an AVLIS process, an atomic vapor is photoionized by one or more laser beams to provide a separation of a desired isotope. As an example, in a uranium vapor comprising U235 and U238 isotopes, the uranium vapor is photoionized by appropriate laser beams to separate the U235 isotopes from the U238 isotopes. An AVLIS process can be utilized in other environments in which is it desired to separate particular isotopes of th specific atomic vapor.
Standard vapor density diagnostic systems in an AVLIS process scan a ring-dye laser over an atomic transition and calculate the density from the transmission signal approximately every four seconds. This technique returns a vapor density value that has to be averaged over thousands of photoionization events. It would be desirable to provide an improved vapor density diagnostic system that can measure vapor density variations during a single photoionization event.